Comparison of 2006 and 2013 Chandra X-ray Images of Cas A
A specially-processed version of Chandra's data of the Cas A supernova remnant is shown here in comparison with the 2006 version. The new image shows with better clarity the appearance of Cas A in different energy bands, which will aid astronomers in their efforts to reconstruct details of the supernova process such as the size of the star, its chemical makeup, and the explosion mechanism. The color scheme used in this image is the following: low-energy X-rays are red, medium-energy ones are green, and the highest-energy X-rays detected by Chandra are colored blue.